Uzair Rizvi, BeyondHeadlines
Wimbledon saw a new woman raise the Venus Rosewater Dish as singles Champion today when 21 year old Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic outplayed the finale favorite Maria Sharapova with a convincing 6-3 , 6-4 victory .
Kvitova, a semi-finalist a year ago, destroyed Sharapova’s service game and won the match in 1 hr and 26 mins.She broke the Russian’s serve five different times in a match en-route to her first Grand Slam title.
Kvitova dropped her serve in a nervous opening game but stormed back immediately.Wtih triple set point at 5-2; the Czech took her first opportunity to win the set.
Sharapova opened the second set on serve, and double faulted to give a break point to Kvitova.Then the Czech continued to go for her shots and reaped the dividends with a help from Russian’s unforced errors and six double-faults.
Kvitova was able to consistently push Sharapova into corners and forcing her to stretch and make weak returns. She won the match with a 105mph ace, and then fell to her knees in disbelief.
Sharapova won this title in 2004 but failed to match her feat again. However, Kvitova became the first Czech to triumph since Jana Novotna in 1998.
She is also the first-left handed player to enter the Wimbledon finals since Martina Navratilova, who made the 1994 finals.
